


Thinking Out Loud

by ArcherDarke



Series: Feels Like Home epilogue shorts [3]
Category: Frozen (Disney Movies), Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon)
Genre: Casselsa, F/F, Some angst, another drabble for my main story, based on something someone mentioned in a comment elsewhere, bringing sweet tenderness to the table, cass being reluctant to talk about her feelings of course, details in the author's notes, elsa makes an appearance at the end, olaf being all knowing and adorkable, some comforting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-18
Updated: 2020-02-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:34:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22791055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArcherDarke/pseuds/ArcherDarke
Summary: Old feelings of guilt surface when Cassandra recieves a letter from Rapunzel, and Olaf proves himself to be an unlikely source of great wisdom, teaching Cassandra something new about true love.
Relationships: Cassandra/Elsa (Disney: Tangled)
Series: Feels Like Home epilogue shorts [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1634242
Comments: 11
Kudos: 57





	Thinking Out Loud

**Author's Note:**

> 'I wonder how someone like Cassandra deals with Olaf and his constant flow of questions and naivete.' - SakuraAyanami
> 
> If you want to know how Cassandra and Elsa got together in my universe please check out my other fic, Feels Like Home!

_Cass!_

_I can’t believe it’s been three months already! Things have been so insane since we arrived back in Corona! Mom insisted that we get started on the wedding planning as soon as we stepped into the Palace and I haven’t known a moment’s peace since! Between you and me, she’s driving me a little bit crazy, but she’s dreamed of this day since the moment I was born and I can’t take it away from her, so I’m coping…just! She has all these big ideas and even bigger scrapbooks filled with pictures and drawings and descriptions! She’s been filling it for years, even before I came home. She said she always believed I would return. We cried a bit after that. But now I’m buried under mountains of colour swatches and dress designs and cake flavours and I’m not sure how much more I can take! Give me a life-threatening destiny adventure any day!_

_Eugene thinks he has it worse. Dad has been trying to teach him all the things a Prince has to know and do and it’s not going well. You know Eugene, he doesn’t take well to rules and regulations and he thinks the royal attire is too stuffy. He’s a free spirit, just like me. I also think he’s secretly worried about failing and disappointing my dad. He still really cares about what my dad thinks of him._

Your _dad says hello! He hasn’t said it out loud, but he really misses you, I can tell. He hasn’t chosen anyone else to be his second-in-command yet, and he keeps saying its because he hasn’t found the right candidate but I’m sure it’s because he’s just not ready to choose someone who’s not you. I painted him a picture of you to cheer him up. He didn’t say much when I gave it to him but then a week later I saw it in a frame on his desk! So you’re always with him, even if you’re not actually here!_

_Now, tell me everything you’ve done since we left Arendelle! Is it still cold there? I bet you’re missing the Corona summer just a little bit! Have you made any new friends? I hope you have. I know you find it hard to let people in but you’ve gotta try. I’m not there, so you have to try!_

_…We miss you, Cass._ I _miss you. But I want you to be happy. More than anything in the world, I want you to be happy. Please tell me you’re happy, Cass?_

_Love and hugs_

_Rapunzel_

* * *

“Is it…bad news?”

Cassandra almost jumped out of her skin at the sound of Olaf’s voice coming from down by her side. She quickly folded Rapunzel’s letter back up and shoved it into Elsa’s vanity drawer, simultaneously shoving down the lump that had formed in her throat at the same time. “No, it’s not bad news.”

“Then why are you sad?”

Olaf sounded like the innocent child he appeared to be, but Cassandra still felt herself bristling at the unexpected invasion of her privacy. “Didn’t Elsa tell you not to come into her rooms uninvited anymore?” She asked, trying to keep her tone neutral.

“She said I had to knock first, so I knocked and then I came in!” Olaf explained cheerily, unaware of Cassandra’s annoyance.

“Right.” Cassandra sighed. She would have to tell Elsa that her little talk with Olaf hadn’t quite gotten through. After the last time he had interrupted them, a time that Cassandra wished she could wipe clean from her mind, he really needed to learn some boundaries - some of Cassandra’s boundaries in particular.

It wasn’t that she hated him. Olaf was sweet and naïve and clearly well loved by everyone in Arendelle, _especially_ by Queen Elsa and Princess Anna. Cassandra really wanted to like him too. The problem was that Olaf was everything Cassandra disliked in a person. Or Snowman, as the case may be. He had no self-awareness and a penchant for asking question after question that she didn’t want to give answers to. Besides that, his child-like ways made it all but impossible for her to be her usual scathing self with him. Just the thought of upsetting him made her feel like a monster. Not to mention that Elsa would be upset with _her_ and that was the very last thing Cassandra ever wanted.

So, Cassandra tolerated the little snowman as best she could, with as much patience as she could muster. Which wasn’t a lot, if she was honest with herself.

“You know, it’s okay to be sad sometimes.” Olaf continued into the silence that had ensued. “I get sad when I think about summer ending, or when I’m having an existential crisis.” He chuckled.

Cassandra frowned at him in confusion, waiting for an explanation that never came. She shook her head. “Is there something I can do for you, Olaf?” She asked, feeling her patience begin to splinter.

“Do you miss your friends? Anna told me you used to live in a different castle, with a different princess. Is that who the letter was from?”

Cassandra sighed again, resigned to her fate. Olaf seemed like a scatter-brained kid most of the time, but he was sharper than most people realised. She folded her arms, refusing to meet Olaf’s big, innocent gaze. “Yes, it was from Rapunzel.”

“Oh, Rapunzel! I liked her.”

“Everybody likes her.”

“She was so warm and kind and she gave the _best_ hugs.”

_Yeah, that’s Raps,_ Cassandra couldn’t stop the small smile that graced her lips as memories of Rapunzel’s legendary hugs surfaced in her mind.

“She was very special to you, wasn’t she?” Olaf probed further.

“She was… _is_ like a sister to me.” Cassandra found herself admitting.

“Ah, just like Elsa and Anna.” Olaf nodded sagely.

“Yeah, something like that.” Silence fell between them again, each seemingly lost in their own thoughts.

“She must miss you very much.”

Cassandra finally looked down at Olaf, not sure what to say. “She’s planning her wedding. She’s got plenty to keep herself busy.”

“Ooh, what’s a wedding?” Olaf asked, sounding awed.

“It’s just a silly, expensive ceremony that lawfully ties you to another person for life.” Cassandra wrinkled her nose in distaste as she explained. She’d never liked weddings.

“Oh,” Disappointment coloured Olaf’s voice, “that doesn’t sound fun at all.”

Cassandra felt a flash of guilt at having dented his cheery mood. “Some people think they’re fun. Some people love them.” She shrugged. “I think they’re awful.”

“Why?”

“They’re a waste of time.” _Just like this conversation,_ Cassandra grumbled.

“Is that why you’re sad? Because Rapunzel is having a wedding?”

“No,” Cassandra frowned, “I’m happy for her. I’m just…sad that I’m not there, helping her through it all.” She finally confessed.

“But you hate weddings!” Olaf stated, confused.

“Yeah, but I love Raps and I feel like…she needs me right now…and I’m not there.” And that was it, wasn’t it? Cassandra could feel Rapunzel’s underlying sadness in her letter as if it was a tangible thing, clawing at her heart. ‘ _Please tell me you’re happy, Cass?’_ How could she tell her best friend, her adopted sister, that yes, she was happy despite being a million miles away from her. She missed Rapunzel. She missed her dearly. She missed her warmth and her compassion and her endless joy every single day. But being in Arendelle, being with Elsa, felt more right than anything else had in her life. Until the events surrounding the Sundrop and the Moonstone, she’d always believed her destiny would be something big, something magnificent, something that would give her life some great meaning. She’d never imagined that her destiny would be a person. She’d never realised that her greatest adventure would be _love._

And that was the reason her heart now felt like a heavy weight in her chest. Rapunzel missed her, and she couldn’t do anything to fix that without leaving Elsa. An old, familiar guilt squeezed the air from her lungs, making it difficult to take in a full breath. In the next second, she felt the light pressure of Olaf’s hand on her thigh, which was as high as he could reach with his short stature.

“Do you want to be there…instead of here?”

Cassandra shook her head. “No…yes…I don’t know!” She stalked away from Olaf, feeling trapped by his undivided attention. “I just want her to be okay without me there. I _need_ her to be okay.” _Just like she needs_ me _to be happy._

“I used to think that _true love_ meant ‘putting someone else’s needs above your own’,” Olaf spoke slowly, as if he was thinking hard about each word that came out of his mouth, “but in the three years since I was born, I’ve also learned that _true love_ can be many things.” Cassandra turned to look at the snowman, surprised by his suddenly serious tone. “Sometimes it’s a simple kiss…sometimes it’s an unbreakable bond between two sisters…and sometimes it’s a reindeer who pretends to eat your nose for breakfast every morning but doesn’t really _mean_ it.” Olaf chuckled warmly to himself. “But, sometimes, _true love_ is letting someone you care about be happy, even if it makes you sad.”

Cassandra looked away again, knowing deep down the truth of Olaf’s words. _Raps told me to come here, she told me to choose Elsa, to choose my own happiness over everyone else’s for a change…and if she was here right now, she’d be calling me an idiot again for worrying about her._ Her lips curved up into a small smile and her gaze darted back to Olaf. “Thank you, Olaf.”

“For what?” Olaf frowned in confusion.

“For…everything you just said?” Cassandra replied bemusedly.

“Oh, that,” Olaf giggled, “I was just thinking out loud.” He patted Cassandra’s thigh and waddled out of Elsa’s rooms, humming blissfully to himself as he went.

Cassandra shook her head with a grin. The weird little snowman with his weird little ways was starting to grow on her.

* * *

“Cassie, are you in here?”

Elsa’s voice drifted out to the balcony where Cassandra stood with her elbows on the rail, twirling a piece of card between her fingers and looking out at the beautiful sight that was the Arendelle fjord. “I’m out here.” She called back.

“Hey,” Elsa slipped her arms around Cassandra from behind and rested her chin on Cassandra’s shoulder, “I’ve barely seen you all day.”

The words were light, but Cassandra could hear the slight worry in Elsa’s voice. She put one of her hands over the ones clasped together at her stomach. “Yeah, I…” She paused, the old but familiar urge to keep her feelings to herself warring with the new but strange assurance that she could trust Elsa with her emotions. “I got a letter from Raps today. She misses me.”

“Oh…well, that’s understandable.” Elsa brushed her lips over Cassandra’s cheek, waiting patiently for her to continue.

“I miss her too. A lot.” Cassandra admitted. She felt the hands under hers stiffen and she gave them a comforting squeeze. “I felt guilty today because I realised that I can’t imagine being anywhere but here with you.” Elsa’s hands relaxed again, and Cassandra smiled softly. “But Olaf made me see that I was being an idiot, that Raps would understand _this_ more than anyone I’ve ever known.”

“ _Olaf_ made you see that?”

Cassandra chuckled at the undisguised shock in Elsa’s tone. Maybe she hadn’t been as discreet about her dislike of Olaf as she’d thought. “Yeah…he’s actually pretty smart…for a three-year-old.” Elsa laughed and Cassandra felt the wonderful heat of her lover’s breath on her neck.

“He does have his moments.” Elsa murmured. “Are you okay?” She tentatively added.

“Yeah, I’m okay.” Cassandra turned her head so that she could capture Elsa’s lips in a sweet kiss. “I’m happy.” She smiled.

“Me too.” Elsa smiled back. After a moment her eyes dropped to the card in Cassandra’s hand. “So…what’s that?”

“Oh,” Cassandra lifted the card so that Elsa could get a better look at it, “this is an invitation to the wedding of the year.”

“Eugh, I hate weddings.”

Cassandra laughed. “Yeah, me too.” She replied, “But its Raps and Eugene’s so…” She turned in Elsa’s arms and leant against the railing, simultaneously pulling Elsa snug against her body. “…will you be my date?”

Elsa chuckled and wrapped her arms around Cassandra’s neck before kissing her soundly on the mouth. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”


End file.
